Otavalo and La Festa de Yamor

Even though Otavalo is only 150 km from the border with Colombia the difference is phenomenal.

People here look all very “Andean” with their black hair, their pony tails (men and women),their folk clothing, the mothers with kids wrapped behind their back and their petite figure (they are all short , very short.... I mean we look tall here!!!!)

The loud sound of salsa and merengue has also been replaced by a much more sedated sound of pan flutes.

Some of the elderly people don’t speak Spanish, instead they use their own language  (I guess quechua ?)

I wouldn’t say that Ecuadorian are less friendly than Colombian, but certainly the feeling is that they tend to be a bit more “reserved” (a lady at the market threw me a bean today when I tried to take a picture of her stall)

On the other hand we feel that as a nation Ecuador is a little bit wealthier than Colombia and certainly you can find luxury goods in the shops on the high street that we did not see in Colombia.

The use of mobile phones for example is wide spread across the population over here (today at the market I saw an old lady farmer selling chickens, taking not 1 but 2 mobiles out of her purse when she heard them ringing), whereas in Colombia the majority of the population would still rent them in the streets and pay the usage by the minute at the ever so present “minutes” stalls.

We arrived in Otavalo on the 25^th of August and found accommodation at the Rivera Sucre Hotel right in the centre of town.
Our room is huge with 2 double beds and plenty of furniture, private bathroom and 4 windows facing a lovely garden.

The hotel comes with a Patio (where the owner has allowed me to park my bike after riding it through the entrance hall) a huge kitchen that we are free to use and even a game room.

All of the above available to us for the “extortionate” price of £15 per night!!!!

YES, ONLY £15 (That is the equivalent of 1 hour wifi connection at the Hilton Hotel in Heathrow)

In fact strangely enough, even though Ecuador is wealthier than Colombia, everything that the tourist needs is actually cheaper (food, accommodation, petrol etc)

We were a bit disappointed to read on the Lonely Planet that we were too early to witness the most important celebration of the year: The fiesta de Yamor, held in Otavalo the first 2 weeks of September.

In reality we soon found out with great relief that the Lonely was wrong and the celebration had started on the 20^th of August.

Most importantly we had just arrived in town to witness the Parade: 92 dance groups competing in a 4 hour parade from 7pm to 11pm.

For the day the Calle Bolivar (the main road in town) is closed to the traffic. The owners of the shops place strategically chairs on the pavements in front of their shops that are rented at $2.5 to the spectators that want to watch the show sitting in prime location.

We were just about to fork out our fiver when a lovely lady invited us to sit on the chairs in front of her shop for free.

We still don’t know why she did it. The 2 most accredited theories are:

Elena’s theory = she was nice and wanted to impress 2 tourists

Paolo’s theory = because we are very tall and extremely good looking  (in Otavalo at least) and Elena is also blonde with blue eyes (totally unique features over here) , the lady thought she would use our powerful image to improve the look of her shop and attract  the local TV filming the parade.

We will never know. The great news is that the show was absolutely brilliant, we were sitting in front of the standing crowd, at 1 meter from the action, we had free popcorns too and yes, the local TV came to film us!!

The only regret is that the following day, while transferring pictures and movies from my mobile to the PC I accidentally deleted 90% of the movies.....doh!

Crossing the border into Ecuador

We really liked the 70 Km road from Pasto to the border.
Unfortunately we could not stop to make enough pictures....

7 Km from Ipiales, on the border with Ecuador there is a canyon with a small river and a tiny waterfall. This place is famous (in particular among Christian pilgrims) as it is the site of the Las Lajas Cathedral. The church has been built on top of a cliff from 1928 to 1952 and the result is pretty spectacular.

We have crossed borders outside Europe before and we are well aware of 3 of the main problems that travellers face:

1)      Spending hours filling up endless forms and moving from one office to another waiting for the relevant officer to finish his breakfast/lunch/dinner/coffee break, cigarette break etc

2)      Ending up in paying a bribe to a professional “helper” to accelerate the process

3)      Doing all the above and yet keeping your eyes fixed on your belongings as the faces of the people surrounding you become dodgier by the hour.

Well, that is definitely NOT the case on the border between Colombia and Ecuador.

There is even a clear sign that tells you that you don’t need to pay bribes. Crossing the border is free and should be fairly straight forward.

It took us only 25 minutes to clear Colombia and 30 minutes to clear Ecuador, a record, considering we hit the border at lunch time!!!

Passports stamped in and out, Carnet the passage stamped in and out.

And since I mentioned it I would like to spend 2 lines on the “carnet” subject.

There are 2 schools of thoughts about the use of the carnet in South America.

Some riders say you don’t need it, others say it is often required

The RAC says that the Carnet is not compulsory in South America but only recommended.

Personally I am happy we spent the £225 to get it. It was useful in Cartagena to get the bike from the DIAN and it made things very easy on the border between Colombia and Ecuador. Your call!

Cleared the border we hit immediately the road (E35) towards Otavalo.

On the Ecuadorian side the sceneries are a bit less dramatic (fewer cliffs and canyons) however you begin to see more volcanoes. The road is larger (3 lines between Ibarra and Otavalo!!!) the asphalt is almost immaculate and most importantly the price of petrol drops from £0.60 per litre to £0.30 per litre. Yes, we filled up the16 litres tank with £3.5. WELCOME TO ECUADOR.

Laguna Verde

If you drive south on the Panamerican road from Pasto towards Ipiales (border with Ecuador) few volcanoes with tops covered by clouds will appear on the horizon; eventually after 30 km of jaw dropping corners you will see a beautiful canyon. 3 more Km and you will reach the turning point (on the right, no signs of course) towards Tuquerres.

This is where the scenery becomes even more spectacular.
I don’t know if these roads are dangerous because of the rocks falling from the cliffs on top of you, the craters opening suddenly below you or simply because it is so difficult to keep the eyes on the road.
What I know is that we didn’t mind waking up at 5.30 am to be at Tuquerres at 8 as we enjoyed the road so much.

We then had our “breakfast” (chicken broth, rice, eggs, fried platano) at the restaurant 13 for £2 and spent another 30 minutes on a jeep to cover the 5km unpaved road to the ranger’s chalet at 3650 meters.

This is where we began to walk

It takes around 2 hours to get to the top of the Azufral Volcano.

The mist surrounds you pretty much all the time which is not too bad so that you can concentrate where you put your feet.

Once you hit 4000 meters you begin to feel a bit tired, maybe also because of the altitude, however the tiredness disappears immediately as soon as the mist opens up slightly to reveal the emerald colour of the green water in the volcano’s crater.

To get to the water (inside the crater) is another 30 minutes walk downhill.

We had the whole volcano for ourselves for the entire morning. In actual fact, looking at the ranger’s logbook it appears we were the only people coming to do the climb in the whole week.

The temperature of the water varies from boiling hot to freezing cold in the space of 1 meter. That depends on whether you are placing your hand where bubbling gases are being released.

We are told that it is this continuous release of gases (and pressure) that makes this volcano less dangerous than others.....

The emerald colour is due to the high content of sulphuric acids in the water. Once again the smell of rotten eggs is all around and you need to make sure you don’t spend too much time in the areas where the smell is strong

The rocks on the west side of the crater are white. There, you can clearly see the mark of where the water used to be and that the level of the laguna as shrunk over the years.

In actual fact there is also a second laguna (almost dry) in the same crater called Laguna negra.
No need to say the Laguna Verde will dry up too, due to global warming.

And yet something magic is happening in this place. In spite of the high concentration of sulphuric acids, a unique specie of algae lives in these waters. Amazing.

The 800 meters climb back to the top is taxing.

We made it back to Tuquerres by 3pm where we had our well deserved lunch once again at the “13”. This time they charged us £3 for steak, beans, rice, etc......

We still had time and energy to speak to local people. In Tuquerres they are specialised in 3 things: they make mattresses (colchones) that you can buy for £15, bricks (ladrinos) and most importantly women wash carrots with their feet (unfortunately we could not see them in action although we were very curious). These women earn £1.5 a day.....The £13 a day for coffee workers does not look so bad now!!!

Pasto

Cuidado!
In Popayan we were told by several people that the road to Pasto was very dangerous (due to the presence of the guerrilla and bandidos) and that we should not stop along the way for any reasons.
To be perfectly honest we did not see any apparent danger, in actual fact we saw barely anyone on a road that can be easily defined  "spectacular."

Pasto is the capital of the Narino region.
The town is seriously outside the tourist beaten track to the point that in 4 days we did not meet a single tourist.

Patrice, the owner of La maison de L’ejecutivo, told us that 17 years ago, when he moved here, things were much worst, and that the only 2 safe roads were the one to the border and the one to the airport.

My and his opinion are that the worst is gone and the area is finally ready to become a tourist destination.
Although Pasto is structured as a proper town you always have the feeling to be in the countryside, maybe because, no matter in which direction you look, you can always see either mountains or volcanoes.
To prove my point here’s a picture of Pasto’s main square with a looming volcano behind

We really enjoyed our 3 days in Pasto. If you ever come this way, make sure you do not follow the Lonely Planet advise and check out this place and the sorrounding area.
To wet your appetite here's a picture of the laguna Las Cochas

Ok, just kidding, this is just a kid playing nearby.
This is a real picture of the Laguna

 And of course don't miss for any reason the Laguna Verde (pls see next chapter)

Popayan

I don't want to be unkind to this city in the south of Colombia, however it is safe to say that since 1983 (when the earthquake struck) nothing else has happened.

Here is a church (with another church far in the background) and some white walls

Another church (this time yellow) with more white walls

And finally...another church with more white walls, and yes, some police watching over a woman standing in front of the church.......you know, something might happen!!

We went out on Saturday night at 8pm and most restaurants were closed.
Now, what town has restaurants closed on Saturday night?
No need to say that everything else was shut too.
By 9.15 pm our Saturday night fever in Popayan was over, after negotiating at the Vina restaurant a boiling asparagus soup........

The best news in our Popayan "non adventure" was the Hotel: we booked a gorgeous room at the Camino Real Hotel right in the town centre for a phenomenal £19 a night. That is a steal, considering that normally you would pay 3 times as much.......we just took full advantage of their special internet weekend tarif.
If you ever come this way and you really want to visit the White city, I suggest you do the same.

The hotel entrance

Hotel courtyard

The zona cafetera

The zona cafetera is the triangle made by 3 towns: Manizales, Pereira and Armenia.
We spent 4 days in the area and I can safely say we did a lot of trecking.
In our mind 3 are the activities we liked the most:
1) Visiting the Santa Rosa SPA
This is an open spa with a natural spring with boiling water, a waterfall in the background and beatiful sceneries all around.
Being a Colombian spa, salsa and merengue is obviously being played by loud speakers and people will dance even while they are in the hot pool

 2) Visiting the Finca of Don Elias in Salento

Don Elias is 74 and has worked all his life as a coffee farmer.
15 years ago at the age of 59, after saving money during his whole life, he finally bought his own finca
The Finca counts roughly 1000 coffee plants, producing around 10Kg of coffee each.
The production is high quality 100 % organic (no pesticides used)
Because the production is high quality it is sold at around £5 per Kg.

Coffee grains are picked only twice a year (the gathering season lasts around 2 weeks).
An expert worker can collect around 120kg of coffee per day.
Workers are paid 360 pesos per Kg.That is the equivalent of 13 pence per kg or roughly £15 a day!!!
We are told that they constantly risk of being bitten by snakes, spiders, tarantulas, frogs and even poisonous worms.
Once the coffee grain is picked it is fermented for 1 day, then the 1st skin is removed with a machine, then dried in the sun for 8 days and after that the 2nd skin is removed.
Finally it is toasted to give it his brown colour and that unmistakable aroma.

 Here I am taking a picture with don Elias and Carlos after buying some of their own made coffee.

3) Tracking in the Cocora Valley

This was quite a challange. We left early in the moring and we covered around 15 km over 5 hrs.
The climb took us as high as 2860.



What made it particularly difficult was the constant rain and the crossing of slippery wooden bridges above torrents.
Here's Elena crossing fearlessly.

Finally, at the end of the day the sun came out showing us the valley in its entire beauty.
The palms growing in this valley are as tall as 60 meters and grow at an altitude close to 3000 meters.

The road to Manizales

There are 2 roads that will take you from Honda to the zona cafetera: one is the quick one via "La linea", the other one is, according to the owner of "casa belle epoque", just a bit steeper, with beatiful sceneries and hopefully open.....
We took our chances and went for road 2.
In a typical Colombian mountain road you can normally expect to see the following:

1) beatiful sceneries

2) speed bumps
3) holes of all sizes
4) 3 little pigs forming a perfect line around a corner

I am afraid by the time we took the picture the perfect line was broken
5) road works fixing a recent avalanche with half line available and alternate traffic (Pare/Siga)
6) an old man, just around the corner, in the middle of the road dragging uphill an impossible pile of wood
7) a truck lying on 1 side

and finally, when the climb is over and you begin your descent, thinking "I have seen it all", being overtaken by a mini push bike with not 1 but 2 kids on board with no brakes cornering at 40 miles per hr using their flip flops to break (not that they do that anyway).......

Honda

When you ask Colombians what do they think about Honda, they normally answer "ahi que calor!!
I have to say we were impressed with this little town.
Ok, the sightseeing is very limited (the market and a couple of roads with colonial buildings) however I guess the beauty of the place is exactly the fact that is a little town, 100% colombian not yet discovered by tourists.
If you want to rest for a couple of days, the place is hot but there is plenty of ice cream to cool you down ......

the meat is fenomenally good too.....

and if after all that food your liver can still operate then you can spend the evening at the right bar for a drink or two....

The following day we decided to visit the river bank (Rio Magdalena).
We were told that the area was a bit dodgy, and I am afraid I have no pictures to show, since I left at the hotel both the mobile and the camera: what a mistake!!

As soon as we sat down under the tin roofed veranda of one of the stalls serving freshly cought Bagre (similar to cat fish), a gigantic summer storm hit the town.
We were stuck there for a good 2 hours which gave us enough time to enjoy the following:

1) The storm
2) The technique used by the fishermen in throwing their heavy nets to catch the fish in the river (they do not stop fishing during the storm)
3) Kids throwing themselves in the river in spite of the clear risk of drawing due to the heavy corrents (they do not stop swimming during the storm either)
4) The same kids coming over to us telling stories about the distructions caused by the flooding only few months ago
5) The same kids asking whether we would finish our meal and, given the go ahead, cleaning up the "unaffordable delicacy"
6) me, asking the owner of the stall, "do you have a shot of rum to warm up?" and him digging out an unopened bottle (clearly cherished over the years) which I had to buy in full for a staggering £6.
7) Now that the precious bottle was finally open, drinking with everybody else under the tinned roof waiting for the storm to pass.

Just before leaving town I took this picture showing some of the dammages caused by the flooding.

From Villa De Leyva to Honda

4 seasons in 1 day:
If you plan to drive in Colombia you always need to remember that maps only show you distances orizontally. However in Colombia it is also wise to consider the "vertical element".
We left VDL early in the morning leaving behind a chilly sun, but soon , as we reached Tunja it was clear that the weather would change.
The road began to climb and by the time we approached Bogota it was pouring down with rain and the temperature had dropped down to 8 degrees.
We stopped briefly to get changed (altitude 2700) as we were both freezing, however we were told that in Honda (our destination) temperature was around 40!!
The road from Bogota to Honda is incredible. In the space of 1 hour you drop 2500 meters and the temperature rises by 30 degrees. On a motorcycle you litterally feel the change in temperature by the minute. Obviously the sceneries change as dramatically and rapidly as the temperature.
By the time we reached La Vega it was spring and once we finally reached Honda it was boiling hot!!!

This is the only picture taken during our descent to Honda as we did not want to break the rhythm.

As we didn't want to stop to get changed every 15 minutes we decided to stick with our winter clothes, which clearly made the 38 degrees in Honda even less bearable.
It is probably for this reason that the police in Honda took pity of us and, not only escorted us to our hotel, but they even helped carrying the luggage inside.

No need to say that we made the most of the mini pool in our hotel (Casa La belle epoque) also in view of the fact that we were the only guests!

Villa de Leyva

12/08/2011
During the week Villa de Leyva is a small quite village in the middle of the mountains where people live off agriculture.
However, in the last few years, thanks to few telenovelas being filmed in its white streets, VDL has acquired a certain fame and people from Bogota come here to spend their weekends.
For this reason we struggled to find accomodation on Saturday, even though the place is packed with hotels and posadas.
Not only we turned up on a Saturday without reservation, but most importantly we chose the weekend when the "festival de cometas" was on.
Please note that cometa here stands for kites, not falling stars (although the festival was held the same day as the night of falling stars).

Apparently the main square of Villa de Leyva is the biggest square in the whole of South America.
You can probably fit in it up to 2 football pitches side by side.

Talking of football, the day was also topped up by a football game between Colombia and Mexico.

I can safely say that Colombian people tend to be fairly loud.
Sometimes, during our bike travels, when we wizz through small villages we are met by huge waves of  salsa and merengue behing played by competing shops in the attempt to catch your attemption.

Now, during a national football game this colombian loudness reaches "another level"!!
The climax is of course when the national team scores: starting from the TV speaker shouting "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOO"  for a good 2 minutes to the sorrounding crowds playing the loudest horns ever.

Sadly for Colombia, Mexico won 3-1 that night, so we were able to have a good night sleep in the once again quiet Villa de Leyva.

In San Gil and Barichara

San Gil is a small village generally famous for 2 things: People like extreme sports and eat ants (horniga culona = big ass ant).
We decided to stick to the first and left the poor ants alone.
As I don't like too much flying (paragliding) and since Elena does not like dark places (caving) we opted for rafting.
It was absolutely brilliant. For 10 pounds we spent the whole morning coming down a class 3 river (Rio Fuente)

You can tell immidiately from the picture that Elena enjoyed herself very much.
From my part the thing I liked the most was actually the nature surrounding us.
The river cuts accross beautiful natural forests.
It is amazing the number of butterflies you can spot. There are flocks of
them in all colors (white, yellow, orange, blu).
It  is since the end of the seventies that I don't remember seeing so many butterflies in one place....I guess this is the price of using pesticides....
Talking of the seventies my father would be pleased to see that the good old Renault 12 (our old car back then) is still very much popular over here 40 years later.
Daddy, if you fancy buying a new one, you know where to go now!

Another big attraction in the area is the parque gallineral.
If you are a fan of the "Lord of the rings" you can find hereTreebeard and all the other Ents....

20 km from San Gil there is a small village called Barichara.
What can I say about Barichara? Well, If San Gil is still stuck in the seventies, Barichara has never moved on since 1800.
We were pretty much the only humans walking in town when we went.
Apparently shops open only on Thursday and Friday from 4pm to 6 pm.
Unfortunately we went on Tuesday lunch time and by 2pm the tour was definetly over.

The main square

Traffic jam at rush hour in Barichara

Jokes apart we really enjoyed our 5 days in the Santander region.
People are ALL really friendly and helpful. They address you with expressions such as "si senor" "con mucho gusto" and "al su servicio" even if you are simply asking some information in the street.
The area is naturally beautiful and the cost of living is sooo cheap.
We had breakfast for 2 at the local panaderia for £2 (and I am talking about coffee, eggs, cake, pastries all freshly baked) and dinner for 2 in the main restaurant (Santa Culona = holy big ass) for £10

Finally we would like to mention our host "signora Esperanza" at the "posada Familiar" in carrera 10.
She was to say the least esquisite, always looking after us and going the extra mile to help, washing our clothes, suggesting places to see and organising activities.
No need to mention that the room was always immaculate!

From Cartagena to San Gil

Friday 5/08/2011
Cartagena-San Gil = 500 miles

When it comes to road planning over the years I have acquired a reputation of being "over ambitious".
When we left Cartagena in the morning my plan was to make it in 1 day to San Gil.

Even the owner of Casa la Fe (who took these pictures) told us we would never make it.....
It took us well over 2 hrs to cover the first 20 km from Cartagena to Turbaco.
The calle 31 in Cartagena's suburbs is hell on earth. A narrow road packed with trucks and buses with black fumes and a temperature reaching well over 40 degrees.
After that things get much better and I can say we almost enjoyed the sorrounding until Carmen the Bolivar.
This is where we turned left on the B road to Bosconia.....100 miles of countryside full of holes in the tarmac and, even a fallen bridge (where we had to push the bike accross).
Here we find some cover from the heath under a tree on the road.

By 3.30pm we finally made it to Bosconia where we hit the Road 45.
This is a beatiful road where you can cruise at 50 miles with trees at both sides of the road and a country side that looks like Tuscany.

As the sun went down we decided to stop at Aquachica (175miles from San Gil).
Not a bad choice considering that you can get the best meat ever for £3!!!

The following day we began to climb and once again Colombia's sceneries left us breathless.

This is the view of the Chochamocha valley, between Bucaramanga and San Gil.

The road is paradise for bikers. The tarmac, the corners, the views.....if you come this way make sure you don't miss it.